Apologize
by Boriqua-chan
Summary: Because Sasuke waited too long to apologize and Sakura thinks its way too late.


**Based on OneRepublic's "Apologize."**

**And because I'm not allowed to post the lyrics, here they are. I OWN NOTHING! (Thanks for telling me, _TheRealGoodyTwoShoes_; I don't want this story taken off.)**

**http : / /www . azlyrics . com / lyrics / onerepublic / apologize . html**

**:: ::**

I can feel the swing and swish of my hair on the back of my neck; I can feel it stop cold as I freeze to the ground. I can practically feel roots sprouting from my feet to the ground.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Sasuke whispers. His voice is silent and strained, the rough edge that it usually has gone. "S—Sakura, I'm…I'm sorry," he says again to my back. He's practically stuttering. Sasuke doesn't stutter. The fact that he is doing so, while _apologizing_, has me in the air, flying alongside angels. Their melodic song is soft on my ears. "I'm sorry I made you suffer. I am sorry."

Sasuke's tone holds no emotion other than regret, an emotion I'm so unused to hearing. I'm tempted to melt again as I had when I was little. I'm almost tempted to believe him; to fall into the embrace that isn't there, isn't offered; to let go of my grudge on him because he is Sasuke and he has suffered through so much.

But he's made me suffer the same, offer and over. He hadn't stabbed cleanly through; he'd used a dull kunai and drove it through me. He'd killed so many. He didn't disserve forgiveness from me. From Tsuande, from the Elders, yes—but not from me.

I try to say something, to turn around. The roots are firmly in place.

"Sakura," Sasuke says again. It's his voice, and in it I can hear all the sadness of the past decade. Even though I couldn't see his face, I know it holds no emotion. I try not to think of how it would look if it did. That I can't take. His next words are a whisper, a whimper, "I need you."

I open my mouth. "You…_need me_?" I ask, so softly I'm not sure if I said anything to begin with.

"No," he answers, catching his earlier mistake. "I'm _sorry_."

I don't know if he's talking about not needing me or about everything. I don't want to know. Still I manage to turn around. My eyes are twin pairs of emerald stones. "It's too late," I utter. My voice sounds shaky even to me. I sound like an earthquake in the making.

Sasuke's eyes onyx eyes got wide and his jaw drops a bit. The tan of his skin whitens. I almost take it back; I almost regret it. "What?" he asks, the look of a beaten puppy in his eyes.

Oh god. I should take it back.

"_It's too late_," I say instead. I'm speaking through a rock the size of Mount Everest. "I said it's too late."

Sasuke waits, his eyes wide. His lips are pressed together, a gesture learned from Naruto. I almost laugh. He says they aren't even friends.

"I took a shot, Sasuke," I declare, my hand running through my pink hair. I take a shaky breath, because I know I'll need it. Wow how I'll need it. "I took a fall. I waited _seven_ _years_ for you. Sevenyears of my life I'll never, _ever_ get back, Sasuke. And I _waited_. When you came back, _I_ saved your life. _Me_, not Naruto, not Sai, not even Tsuande. _Me_."

I press my lips together.

"They didn't even know you were on the death queue. _I_ saved your life because I needed you. I needed you to be alive." I snort. "I needed you like a heart needs a beat." Sasuke just watches. This information means nothing to him; he already knew it. "But that's nothing new, is it?

"After seven years, I'm finally getting over you and _now's_ the time you want to come to me, in the middle of the night, and _apologize_, looking as sad and as innocent as you do," I snap at him. I swear I see him flinch, by anything and everything in the world—I see him flinch. My lips press together again and I swallow. "I said it's too late."

I squash my lips together for a third time. Closing the gap between us, I press a kiss to Sasuke's cheek, doing it in the most sisterly way I can. It takes all I have not to press another to his lips. Every single drop of self-control.

I see him frown, and a lone tear fall from the depths of his onyx eyes. I brush off that one tear so no one will see him cry—because he didn't need that. I want to take everything back, everything. But I can't do anything else, so I turn around and walk away into the crowds of people, lost to him.

**:: ::**

**I thought the song fit well, even though I really hope they'll end up together because they are _awesome_.**

**As you can see, I was in an angsty mood. It probably isn't very good. **

**SO! R&R!**


End file.
